Bouche à Oreille cafe in Bourges, accidentally awarded a Michelin star when it was mistaken for a much glitzier restaurant of the same name 180 kilometres away.

Waiters at a cheap and cheerful restaurant in central France have been worked off their feet since the eatery was awarded a coveted Michelin star by mistake.

Guide Michelin France, which published its 2017 version on Thursday last week, mistook Jacquet’s place for another restaurant of the same name. It took nearly a week to correct the error on its website.

“We’re swamped,” Veronique Jacquet, who runs the Bouche à Oreille [Word of Mouth] bar-restaurant in the town of Bourges, told Le Parisien. “I don’t have much space and there are only four waiters.”

“We apologised to the two establishments and we are sorry to have misled our clients,” the guide’s Claire Dorland-Clauzel told Le Parisien.

The mistake showed up only on the website, and not in the red print version or on the mobile app of the foodie bible which can make or break aspiring top chefs with its system of awarding up to three stars to the finest restaurants.

The other Bouche à Oreille is 180km north, in Boutervilliers near Paris, with carpeted floors, linen tablecloths and dishes including lobster flan, calf’s brain, and a crunchy pear and chocolate, complete with champagne, for €48.

Chef Aymeric Dreux took the mistake in his stride: “It was a little boo-boo that caused no harm and was corrected.” Dreux, who first earned the star in 2015, added: “I called [Jacquet] in Bourges. The whole thing made us laugh.”